Computer won't reboot with black screen

[clairehh]

I've a problem with my vista , black screen. I dont have AHCI cd-rom, but I have the recovery disk but will I lose all my data if I use the recovery disk?

The black screen reads

- AMD data change update new data to nvidia boot agent 249.0542 client mac addr:00 1d 72 a9 82 fe PXE-E53 no boot file name received PXE-M0F EXITING NVIDIA bootagent boot from AHCI cd-rom disk boot failure insert system disk

please help , thank you

[cluberti]

Sounds like it's trying to PXE boot after a reboot because it didn't find a bootable OS on a hard drive (or didn't find a hard drive at all). Does your hard drive show up in the list of devices attached to the system when the BIOS goes through it's POST?

[clairehh]

Sounds like it's trying to PXE boot after a reboot because it didn't find a bootable OS on a hard drive (or didn't find a hard drive at all). Does your hard drive show up in the list of devices attached to the system when the BIOS goes through it's POST?

Thank you so much for the reply. I have no clue what happened. I have a good anti-virus pgm (Bitdefender), never had a problem until recently my teen son downloaded some pgms to run Maple Story game. Since then I would get black screens with the following msgs :

AMD data change update new data to nvidia boot agent 249.0542 client mac addr:00 1d 72 a9 82 fe PXE-E53 no boot file name received PXE-M0F EXITING NVIDIA bootagent boot from AHCI cd-rom disk boot failure insert system disk

I was able to "start windows normally " during the reboot and also learned a valuable lesson to backup files frequently.

The black screen still comes back everytime we shut down the computer. Should I uninstall the MapleStory game ?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[winIuzer]

Sounds like your son maybe switched the BIOS boot order placing the LAN (PXE) boot option above the HD one causing the computer to try to netboot before scanning it's internal HD.

[jcarle]

Sounds like your son maybe switched the BIOS boot order placing the LAN (PXE) boot option above the HD one causing the computer to try to netboot before scanning it's internal HD.

Seeing that the boot sequence ends with "disk boot failure insert system disk", that's unlikely. It could be that the hard drive is intermittently failing and that repeated power cycling eventually allows it to boot.

@clairehh:

If you could provide us with as much information about your computer as possible, that would really help us out. If you have a recovery disk, then it sounds like you have a branded computer, something like a Dell, HP or Gateway? Can you find a model number on your computer as well?

Edited July 4, 2010 by jcarle

[winIuzer]

Sounds like your son maybe switched the BIOS boot order placing the LAN (PXE) boot option above the HD one causing the computer to try to netboot before scanning it's internal HD.

Seeing that the boot sequence ends with "disk boot failure insert system disk", that's unlikely. It could be that the hard drive is intermittently failing and that repeated power cycling eventually allows it to boot.

@clairehh:

If you could provide us with as much information about your computer as possible, that would really help us out. If you have a recovery disk, then it sounds like you have a branded computer, something like a Dell, HP or Gateway? Can you find a model number on your computer as well?

That thing about the HD requiring several power cycles sounds like the power jack that the IDE/SATA power cable plugs into is going bad, check the power cable (look for bite marks and cracks/rips in the cable) and both the connector in the mainboard and in the HD itself (look for bent, loose, broken or missing pins).

Edited July 10, 2010 by winIuzer

[jcarle]

That thing about the HD requiring several power cycles sounds like the power jack that the IDE/SATA power cable plugs into is going bad, check the power cable (look for bite marks and cracks/rips in the cable) and both the connector in the mainboard and in the HD itself (look for bent, loose, broken or missing pins).

That's also very unlikely, unless his son is a velociraptor. Often the cause of eratic startup success on power up is simply due to fatigue of the spindle's drive motor, usually due to low quality parts.